Minister of Works, Sen. Eng. Nweze David Umahi, has ordered the termination of the contract with Levant Construction Ltd. for the reconstruction of Benin-Sapele-Warri Road (Section 1: Benin—Imasabor), which is being executed under the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme, due to non-performance.
A statement by the special adviser to the minister, Barr. Orji Uchenna Orji, said the decision was taken after a meeting with the chief executives of GELD Construction Ltd and SKECC Nigeria Ltd on 17 June 2025 in his office, Mabushi-Abuja, over the delay in the execution of the Benin-Sapele-Warri Road project.
He said the minister of state for works, Rt. Hon. Bello Muhammad Goronyo Esq, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Works, Engr. Olufunso Adebiyi, and the directors of key departments were present at the meeting.
The minister expressed disapproval over Messrs Levant’s failure and/or neglect to live up to expectations in their contractual duties regarding the section of the road awarded to them.
He said, “We have three sections there. We have the Levant section. Unfortunately, Levant has not lived up to expectations. We even had to intervene and beg the Governor of Edo State to please get the worst sections of that route done. We divided the worst sections into two and told Levant to concentrate on one part.
“While the governor of Edo State intervened, which I think is about 23 kilometres for N35 billion, and that section the governor of Edo State intervened in is ongoing very well, Levant has since left the site. We gave them a series of warning letters. We also gave them the last termination notice.
When a termination notice is given to you, you have 14 days to go back to the site and begin to do those things you were not doing. This time is for them to remobilise to the site and for them to work, but they did not respond.”
Umahi, therefore, “directed the Permanent Secretary to get the job properly terminated and write them a letter for a joint measurement, and also to write their bank to request repayment of the APG, failing which the matter would be taken to the EFCC.”
According to the statement, the minister expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the discussion with SKECC Nigeria Ltd and Geld Construction Ltd regarding the need for them to step up work on the respective sections of the road project they are handling.
He commended the governors of Delta State, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, and Edo State, Sen. Monday Okpebholo, for their interventions on some kilometres of that road project.
“I have called the governor of Delta State, and I commend him for the very beautiful work he’s doing. Three flyovers at the same time, beautiful flyovers. In this country, we need such beauties. We have also learned from that design. So, we appealed to him to get any contractor within that zone to put in ten kilometres of reinforced concrete. He has agreed to do that. So, I commend him very highly, which means that the governor of Edo State is intervening in that section, and the governor of Delta State is intervening in that section. We are grateful to them,” he added.
The minister on the jobs by Messrs SKECC and Messrs Geld said, “SKECC has about one kilometre, which they started with milled asphalt. Yes, the money in the budget for SKECC within their own section, NNPC allocation, is exhausted. But we are pleading with them to go back and remedy this one kilometre, where they have milled the existing asphalt.”
For Messrs Geld, he said, “Geld has accepted to go back to their own section, and we’ve agreed to review their project to cater for the unforeseen circumstances that they encountered. So, they are going back to the site, and we’ve agreed to work very well with them. And we’re happy about that. And the second job they have, which is the Lokoja-Abuja Road, we’ve also agreed that they should go back to the site and review the project, because as of today, the asphalt cost is 9,000 per square meter, whereas asphalt is about 30,000 per square meter. So, they are going back to the site on trust, and we’re going to do that. And then you get to Itoki – Ikorodu Road, which is 34 kilometres. We’ve agreed with them on all the issues. They are going back to the site, and I thank Mr President for his interest in all the projects in the federation.”
Furthermore, Umahi, while reacting to statements by some groups who purport to speak on behalf of Northern elders, alleges that the Federal Ministry of Works is doing more projects in the South than in the North.
The minister debunked such impressions as false and misleading, noting that the Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been consistently inclusive in implementing road and bridge projects across the six geopolitical zones, both in executing the inherited ongoing road projects and in distributing the Renewed Hope Road Legacy Projects.
He said, “In this ministry, we don’t count where anybody came from. We don’t count where projects are cited. We are using the example of Mr. President, who came on board. He took all the inherited projects of the ministry and continued to work on them. He didn’t want to know the lopsidedness of the projects. For example, this Tax Credit of NNPC is only 5% in South West and 4% in South East, Niger State has 26% alone. So, he didn’t want to care about where these inherited projects are. He had to, as a very unique leader, take over the entire thing, and he’s going on with them. And so we should stop looking at a project as it’s coming from the North, it’s coming from the South because the Southern people use the roads of the North, and the Northern people use the roads of the South. So, we should see ourselves as one people, one country, this is very important.”
He added, “They talked about Second Niger Bridge. They talked about Lagos-Ibadan. They said Lagos-Ibadan is ₦195 billion. What they didn’t know is that ₦195 billion is the total contract sum from the past administration, and that what this administration is putting to complete the project is only ₦33 billion. So, it’s not ₦195 billion. They talked about Second Niger Bridge. This section II A is ₦134 billion, and section II B is ₦174 billion. Now, if you look at the projects in the North, just to properly inform the people, you look at the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road, Sections I and III. It’s ₦252 billion. 30% is already paid for that job. And it’s being done with the same quality as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. The job is ongoing. Section II is 164 kilometres, and it is ₦525 billion. And it’s being done with concrete, the same quality as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. Mr. President has approved a 30% payment, which is ₦152 billion, and work is ongoing. You come and see the project that was awarded in March 2023, which is the Sokoto-Zamfara-Katsina-Kaduna, a total of 750 kilometres, with an initial cost of ₦825 billion. That project is ongoing. There was no shovel on the project before we came on board. It’s Mr President who is doing the project. In the Sokoto axis, by August, CBC would have completed about 50 kilometres on the Continuously Reinforced Concrete, the same quality as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project. We have the Mothercat. We have the Tracta. We have the Sectraco working, and major top companies are doing the project. We have the Zaria-Nkru project, which is 152 kilometres. That project is ongoing. We have a project that covers the BUA Tax Credit, which is 256 kilometers, and goes through Jigawa, Kano, and Katsina. It’s also under the BUA Tax Credit. We have the Kano Northern Bypass. That project is ongoing. We have Section L of Kano-Maiduguri, 100.9 kilometres by Tracta. That project is ongoing. We have the Dikwa project, which is 52 kilometres in Borno State. That project is ongoing under Dangote Tax Credit. You have the Bama project in Borno State, which is 49 kilometres away. That project is ongoing under Dangote Tax Credit. We have section V of the Kano – Maiduguri project being done by CCECC, which is ongoing. We have the fourth Renewed Hope Legacy Project of Mr. President, which is the Akwanga- Jos-Bauchi-Gombe Superhighway, 439 kilometres. We are completing the design at the directive of the President. It was on flexible pavement. The president said, “No, I want it double carriageway, three lanes each, concrete pavement. We have the Maraba-Keffi project, 43 kilometres by two, ₦73 billion by China Harbour. That project is ongoing. We have the Makurdi down to 9th mile Enugu, 260 kilometres by two, which is about a billion U.S. dollars project. That project is ongoing. We have the Manado project in Kebbi State. That project is ongoing. Time will fail me to read out the projects that Mr President is doing in the North and also in the South. So, when you look at the four legacy projects of the President, the North has 52%, and the South has 48%. Let me tell you something. People talk about the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. Yes, we procured Section I, which is ₦1.068 trillion; 30% has been paid. We procured Section II, which is the flyovers of Section I and Section II, passing through Dangote Refinery, passing through a swamp, which is about ₦1.6 trillion. Yes, we have procured Section III A and III B, which is the end of the project, in Akwa Ibom and Cross River, which is about ₦1.33 trillion. When you aggregate this thing, this is about 3 point something trillion Naira. But then you get to Kebbi, we have 258 kilometres of one carriageway, which we procured for about ₦958 billion, only one section. The second carriageway is going to the FEC. So, when you put the two together, you have about ₦2 trillion on the Kebbi axis alone. Then, Sokoto is 120 kilometres away, where my brother, the honourable minister of state for works, hails from. We’ve already procured ₦454 billion for the 120 kilometres. And by the time you procure the second one, you’re almost a trillion. So, the two together are about ₦3 trillion. It is done with the same quality as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. The one coming from Cross River to Ebonyi, to Benue, to Kogi to Nasarawa, to Abuja, Section I has been procured which is ₦362 billion for 118 kilometers. It is being procured, and we are just reviewing it to include an additional 5 kilometres of road because of underlying factors. So, Mr. President is very committed. I’ve never seen such a unique President.”
Also responding to those criticising the pace of work on Eleme-Onne project, under Tax Credit project, he explained, “When we came on board, the total cost was ₦156 billion for 30 kilometers of the road, plus decompile towards Akwa Ibom section of the East West road, and then also a bridge at Aleto, and then four flyovers. One flyover has been started at refinery junction, and then Aleto Bridge is ongoing, very beautiful design, 80-meter span there, which is a beauty to behold. Let me say that the contractor, RCC, after the initial fight with them,they are behaving very well and doing beautiful work now. People were saying that we did not complete one carriageway. We’ve completed one carriageway. But they now say, “Oh, if you’ve completed, why are you doing asphalt on the same carriageway? If you go and check where we are doing asphalt on the same carriageway, you will find out that it is on the location of the flyover. We are not supposed to do that. But because we wanted a seamless traffic movement, we said, “Okay, come and do asphalt in those locations.”
The minister expressed commitment to the ministry’s mission of restoring Nigerians’ confidence in the road infrastructure nationwide and thus making the people appreciate the transformational power of Mr President’s renewed Hope administration.
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